History Of Graphic Design

• Art Nouveau


  A transition that evolved from the past designs of the historical period, replacing the use of past forms, styles, and old approach of the 19th century, and starting the modern movement which paved the way for the 20th century
• Salon de l'Art Nouveau

  Arose in 1895 in a Paris gallery by an art dealer, Samuel Bing
• Art Nouveau


  • The organic linear movements frequently dominate the spatial area and other visual properties, such as color and texture
  • In earlier three-dimensional design, ornaments often were mere decorative elements applied to the surface of a building or object, but in art nouveau objects, the basic forms and shapes were formed by, and evolved with, the design of the ornament
  • Its forms and lines were often invented rather than copied from nature or the past, there was a revitalization of the design process that pointed toward abstract art
• Applied-art techniques


  Developed with the advancement of commercial printing which upgraded the visual quality of mass communications
• International character of art nouveau

  Expedited by advances in transportation and communications technology, and contact between artists in various nations through print media and international exhibitions
• Jules Cheret


  • Graphic artist who had an important role in the transition of the previous design movements to Art Nouveau style
  • Father of the modern poster
  • Designed thousands of posters, and was named to the Legion of Honor by the French government for the creation of the new branch of art that advanced printing
• Eugene Grasset


  • Graphic artist who had an important role in the transition of the previous design movements to Art Nouveau style
  • First rival of Cheret who had a wide knowledge in the medieval art
  • His 1883 publication of Histoire des quatre fils Aymon (Tale of the Four Sons of Aymon) was an achievement of both in graphic design and printing technology
  • His flowing line, subjective color, and ever-present floral motifs pointed toward French art nouveau
  • His oeuvre included wallpaper and fabric design, stained glass windows, typefaces, and printer's ornaments
• Art Nouveau in England

  • More focused on graphic design and illustration including the Gothic Art and Victorian painting
• Aubrey Beardsley


  • Famous young designer of art nouveau with the kind of his pen line, black-and-white designs, and exotic imagery
  • His renowned work was the new edition of Malory's Morte d'Arthur
• Charles Ricketts


  • Collaborated with Charles Shannon
  • His knowledge and forte are in print production and book design
  • Established his own studio and publishing firm—the Vale Press
• Georges Auriol, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen


  • Younger artists of Art Nouveau who gathered with Grasset
• Alphonse Mucha


  • Young Czech artist who was with Cheret, Grasset, Toulouse-Lautrec when they developed the graphic motifs which moved rapidly toward the floral phase of art nouveau
  • His dominant theme was a central female figure surrounded by stylized forms derived from plants and flowers, Moravian folk art, Byzantine mosaics, etc.
• Many trademarks of Art Nouveau designs have been used since the 1890's
• Louis Rhead


  • Major practitioner of art nouveau in America
  • His graphic design is a mix and combination of Grasset techniques, the influence of Victorian designs, Arts and Crafts Movement, and the curving, abstract, linear patterns
• William H. Bradley


  • Major practitioner of art nouveau in America
  • His work is inspired by Beardsley's style
  • Known for his innovative and inventive typographic design
  • Established the Wayside Press creating designs for publishers and producing books and advertisement
• Ethel Reed


  • First American woman who became famous in graphic design, specifically as a book illustrator and poster designer
• Edward Penfield


  • Art director for Harper and Brothers publications
  • Evolved toward his mature style of contour drawing with flat planes of color
  • Eliminated the background to force the viewer to focus on the figure and lettering, a technique likely showing the influence of Japanese prints
  • Drew with a vigorous, fluid line, and his flat color planes were often supplemented by a masterly stipple technique
• Maxfield Parrish


  • Younger artist of the 1890s poster movement who became a major illustrator for magazines and books during the twentieth century, expressing romantic and idealized view of the world in different print illustrations
• Jugendstil


  • The Art Nouveau in Germany, called Jugendstil (youth style) after a new magazine, Jugend (Youth), which began publication in Munich in 1896 and spread to Berlin, Darmstadt, and all over Germany
  • German's art nouveau motifs maintained their interest in medieval letterforms and Renaissance style
  • Main contribution was the innovations from the floral phase of Art Nouveau to a more geometric approach
• Adolfo Hohenstein


  • Father of poster design in Italy
• Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Giovanni Mataloni, and Marcello Dudovich


  • Best poster artists in Italy who worked under Hohenstein
• Frank Lloyd Wright


  • Recognized as the greatest architect of all time who promoted organic architecture
  • Operated a printing press, and collaborated with other designers in the production of The House Beautiful, where his border designs were executed in a freehand line describing a lacy pattern of stylized plant forms
• Vienna Secession


  • Countermovement to the floral art nouveau that flourished in some parts of Europe
  • Revolt led by Painter Gustav Klimt and the key members are architects Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoff Mann, and artist-designer Koloman Moser
  • Posters for the Vienna Secession's exhibitions showed the mature Vienna Secession's style which is clean, simple, sans-serif lettering ranging from flat, blocky slabs to fluidly calligraphic forms
• Peter Behrens


  • German artist, designer, and architect who had a major role in the typographic reform
  • Advocate of sans-serif typography
  • Used a grid system to structure space in his design layouts
  • Considered the "first industrial designer" because of his designs to manufactured products such as street lamps and tea pots
  • Standardized the strokes of his letterforms, and innovate a typographic image by combining the heavy, condensed feeling of black letter, the letter proportions of roman inscriptions, and his standardized letterform construction
  • Horizontals and verticals are emphasized, and diagonals replaced by curved strokes in letters such as W and V
  • Appointed as the artistic adviser of AEG
• In 1900, Behrens published his 25-page booklet Feste des Lebens und der Kunst: eine Betrachtung des Theaters als höchsten Kultursymbols (Celebration of Life and Art: A Consideration of the Theater as the Highest Symbol of a Culture), in sans-serif type
• AEG Turbine Hall


  Designed by Peter Behrens in 1909 in Berlin, Germany
• Peter Behrens


  • True visionary and the first Renaissance designer of the modern age, moving with ease from one discipline to another—painting, architecture, product design, furniture design, and graphic design
  • His creative interests were boundless
  • First to pursue a seamless integration of graphic design and the built environment, and was an inspiration to the founders of the modernist movement
  • In the early 1900s, became one of the leaders of architectural reform in Germany and one of the first architects of factories and office buildings utilizing a modernist palette of brick, steel, and glass
  • His ideas and teachings on design for industry, as well as everyday objects and products, influenced a group of young designers that would ultimately alter the direction of twentieth-century graphic design and architecture worldwide
• Larkin Building Atrium


  • Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1904 in Buffalo, New York, USA
  • One of the first buildings in the United States to utilize steel construction, as well as incorporate innovations such as air-conditioning, built-in furniture, and a rooftop garden and recreation area for the needs of the new, modern-day office worker
  • Distinctive element was its 76-foot- (23 m) tall light court or top-lit atrium in the center of the building, which provided natural daylight to all of its floors, as well as a large central work space for employees, located at the atrium's base
  • Between the light court's supporting piers, Wright incorporated a series of typographic inscriptions displayed in the spandrel panels of the galleries, with 42 inspirational words set in all-caps, serif-styled letterforms, articulated in gold leaf, and framed in sets of three (3) typographic lines with decorative geometric motifs
• Industrial Revolution


  Period that transformed and expanded the possibilities of creating new type designs
• New type designs


  • Antique fonts by Vincent Figgins
  • Egyptian
  • Ionic
  • Clarendon
  • Tuscan-style letters
• Antique fonts by Vincent Figgins

  • Bold, mechanical feeling through slab-like rectangular serifs, even weight throughout the letters, and short ascenders and descenders
• Egyptian


  • Slab serif fonts
• Ionic


  • Variation of Egyptian with slightly bracketed serifs and increased contrasts between thick and thin
• Clarendon


  • Condensed Egyptians with stronger contrasts between thick and thin strokes and lighter serifs
• Tuscan-style letters


  • Serifs are extended and curved often with bulges, cavities, and ornaments
• Wood-types by Darius Wells

  Durable, light, and cheaper than metal types, used in posters and broadsheet designs
• Linotype machine by Ottmar Mergenthaler


  Small brass matrixes, 90 typewriter keys controlled vertical tubes, line of matrixes poured by melted lead to cast a slug of the raised line of type
• Photography


  Used in wood-engraved illustrations, helped illustrators capture and document reality and turn into a repeatable image, significant tool to support graphic design
• Lithography by Aloys Senefelder


  Planographic printing process, image drawn on flat stone surface with water spread over the stone to moisten all areas except the oil-based image, oil-based ink rolled over the stone but not to the wet areas, sheet of paper and printing press used to transfer the inked image onto the paper
• Chromolithography


  Color lithography, separated printing plates printed other colors